South African brewer eyes cannabis beer in the future

A craft brewer in South Africa is taking advantage to market cannabis beer after a recent court decision to allow private use of cannabis in the country.

Poison City Brewing, launched in 2015 produces five different beers, including its latest brand, Durban Poison Cannabis lager.

The Brewery’s owners say they are ready to finance the new beer after attracting investors.

“The easiest route into the market was to go with beer. And an interesting part there is that in beer there’s an ingredient called hops which most people know about and hops is actually part of the same plant group as cannabis”, said Graeme Bird of Poison beer city brewing.

In September, the Constitutional Court decriminalized the use and cultivation of cannabis in private space. But this decision did not legalize its trade or distribution. Even displaying cannabis in public remains legally dubious.

Entrepreneurs hope the pending legal changes will allow them to bring their businesses out of the shadows.

“I don’t really get that whole cannabis thing; if you never told me that, I wasn’t gonna think it’s a cannabis beer. So, they must put some more cannabis, maybe like a smell or something, I don’t know”, Dakalo Motselele, resident of Johannesburg.

The lager which is sold in different bars and outlets around the country isn’t to everyone’s taste.

The lager is named after Durban Poison, a popular strain of marijuana known around the world for its distinctive smell and relatively short flowering period.

Reuters